withstanding his apparent retirement, he continued to take interest in
political affairs, and to advise in the management of them (1500-1558).

CHARLES VI., emperor of Germany from 1711 to 1740, as well as king
of Spain from 1703, was son of the Emperor Leopold I., and father of
Maria Theresa.

CHARLES XII., king of Sweden, son of Charles XI., a warlike prince;
ascended the throne at the age of 15; had to cope with Denmark, Russia,
and Poland combined against him; foiled the Danes at Copenhagen, the
Russians at Narva, and Augustus II. of Poland at Riga; trapped in Russia,
and cooped up to spend a winter there, he was, in spring 1709, attacked
by Peter the Great at Pultowa and defeated, so that he had to take refuge
with the Turks at Bender; here he was attacked, captured, and conveyed to
Demotica, but escaping, he found his way miraculously back to Sweden, and
making peace with the Czar, commenced an attack on Norway, but was killed
by a musket-shot at the siege of Friedrickshall; "the last of the Swedish
kings"; "his appearance, among the luxurious kings and knights of the
North" at the time, Carlyle compares to "the bursting of a cataract of
bombshells in a dull ballroom" (1697-1718).

CHARLES I., king of England, third son of James I., born at
Dunfermline; failing in his suit for the Infanta of Spain, married
Henrietta Maria, a French princess, a devoted Catholic, who had great
influence over him, but not for good; had for public advisers Strafford
and Laud, who cherished in him ideas of absolute power adverse to the
liberty of the subject; acting on these ideas brought him into collision
with the Parliament, and provoked a civil war; himself the first to throw
down the gauntlet by raising the royal standard at Nottingham; in the end
of which he surrendered himself to the Scots army at Newark, who
delivered him to the Parliament; was tried as a traitor to his country,
condemned to death, and beheaded, 30th January, at Whitehall (1600-1649).

CHARLES II., king of England, son of Charles I., horn at St. James's
Palace, London; was at The Hague, in Holland, when his father was
beheaded; assumed the royal title; was proclaimed King by the Scots;
landed in Scotland, and was crowned at Scone; marching into England, was
defeated by Cromwell at Worcester, 3rd September 1651; fled to France; by
the policy of General Monk, after Cromwell's death, was restored to his
crown and kingdom in 1660, an event known as the Re